Move to train staff for hotels, tourism

The cooperation aims to ease the shortage of skilled labour in the industry and related business, which are reportedly being challenged by liberalisation.
TCT president Piyaman Tejapaibul said the sector was particularly concerned about house keeping, the front office, multi-language staff, and food and beverage. She said the hotel sector alone needed about 100,000 workers per year due to more hotels and resorts opening.
The industry so far has not suffered a management shortage.
Staff who can work as guides and speak Russian, Korean or Arabic were also needed. The TCT, in tandem with the colleges, is offer training courses for 32 employment facets of the industry in a bid to improve manpower across the board.
Members of the Thai Hotels Association are hosting and providing venues for the training.
“Thailand is going to join the formulation of the Asean Economic Community, or AEC, next year but we still have many unskilled workers,” Piyaman said. She said while the country was moving slowly on human resource development, the TCT believed that by joining forces with educational institutes it would set a benchmark for the entire industry in the long term.
According to Piyaman, two million people work at hotels and resorts in Thailand and about three million are involved related business like restaurants, shops, car rental and transportation.